The government today informed the Lok Sabha that, Indian Railways has taken up designing and manufacturing of High-speed trains. In a written reply Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed that Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in collaboration with BEML is designing and manufacturing High-Speed Trains sets which will have a design speed of 280 kilometers per hour. The manufacturing cost is around 28 Crore rupees per car, which is highly competitive compared with other train sets.
Replying to another question, the Railway Minister said, the overall occupancy of Vande Bharat express trains is more than 100 percent. He stated that, Vande Bharat services are being operated at the maximum permissible speed to ensure optimal utilisation of speed potential. He added that, there is no proposal to reduce the speed of Vande Bharat services.
The government also informed the Lok Sabha that, Railway has no plans to discontinue unreserved compartments in trains. In a written reply Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, During the current financial year, more than 600 General Class coaches have been attached, in the Mail-Express trains operating with LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches. Keeping in view of increased demand he added that, Indian Railway has planned to manufacture 10 thousand non-AC Coaches including General Class and Sleeper Class Coaches.
